Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond, BC (2024)
Artworks: To Hold Myself I, 《凝散》 Pressing into Cracks and Blooms III
Curated by: Zoë Chan
Photo Credits: Xinwei Che
To Hold Myself I
Materials: Video (4mins, loop), 30 bisque-fired ceramic vessels, clay slip, mineral oxides, water
This work was created on the cusp of profound change in Che's life as she immigrated to Canada from Singapore and navigated the slow fracturing of inherited family dynamics. This installation of ceramic vessels and raw clay beds fills the entrance space of Richmond Art Gallery and reflects both the presence and absence of Che's body.
The liveliness and vivid colours of Che's ceramic materials quickly become parched and cracked if left unattended. Much like a living organism, this art installation calls for consistent care and attention. Every encounter that the viewer has with this work is different as it continually undergoes cycles of evaporation, cracking, and watering.
《凝散》 Pressing into Cracks and Blooms III
Materials: Inkjet print on cotton rag paper (traditional Chinese medicine, raw clay)
Che initially created this series as a meditation on personal loss and change. Filling raw clay bowls with medicinal herbs and watching their eventual collapse and rupture was a material ritual that Che enacted hundreds of times in her studio and in performance-installations. As this work is restaged and altered in different exhibition spaces through the medium of photography, it expands to become a living archive that engages with the state of change in response to the audience and history of each location.
Read more about this series.